Back in June, I did a three day Blueprint Cleanse. Then, in October, I did Organic Avenue LOVEdeep for five days.

And now I am on the third day of another three day Blueprint Cleanse. Last time I chose the Level 3 Excavation Cleanse. This time I opted for Level 1, the Renovation Cleanse. This is because while I love green juice and drink it every day, I really don’t like BPC’s green juice. I figured out that it is because they include romaine, which just doesn’t taste good juiced to me. Level 3 contained four green juices a day, while Level 1 only contains two. Two I can handle.

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Level 1 contains these six juices in the following order each day:

(1) Green Juice, (2) Pineapple Apple Mint, (3) Green Juice, (4) Spicy Lemonade, (5) Carrot Beet Apple Lemon Ginger and, the one I look forward to all day long, (6) CASHEW MILK.

Why did I decide to shell out my hard earned and in limited supply cash now to do yet another juice fast?

• My stomach has been BAD lately. Bloating, pain, etc. I had no relief. Once again, I needed a break.
• I overindulged over the holiday weekend, even though I a Jew!  Needed to get back on track.
• I got an email from BPC offering 25% off. An offer I couldn’t refuse given my other reasons.

So here I am on Day 3 and I must say it hasn’t been too bad at all. I’m doing this with my good blogger friend Maggie which has been great for support. We gchat all day about the cleanse. Maggie is doing Level 3 which is good for her since she loves the greens. She actually hates the cashew milk, which is my favorite. I want to do a cashew milk only cleanse. If only I could trade Maggie my greens for her cashew.

The first day was tough in the sense that I just wanted to eat. I was working from home and I was in noshing mode. Of course, there was no actual need to nosh, especially since I had a food filled weekend upstate with my mom, brother, Mallory and her family. The weekend consisted of peanut butter cup cookies, noodle pudding, sweet potato casserole, broccoli casserole, french toast . . . you get the picture. Not the way one is supposed to transition into a cleanse, but what can you do.

I decided to use my rebounder  during the day (figured this would be a great time to reap its benefits) but ended up only doing 10 minutes due to work and laziness.

Once again, I was surprised by how not hungry I was. That doesn’t mean I didn’t want food (I had crazy cravings for foods I don’t even eat anymore), but I was full from my juices. I wasn’t even able to finish the red one (carrot, beet, apple, lemon, ginger) because I was so full. I did finish my beloved cashew milk. YUM. Made the whole day worth it. It is made with vanilla bean, agave and cinnamon.

And even though I went to bed full, I didn’t feel like I usually do after dinner — stuffed, unable to move, blah. None of that. I felt fine, but satisfied.

I woke up Tuesday morning and felt different. It was a sensation upon waking I have not experienced since, well, my last juice fast. How to describe it? I didn’t feel like my stomach was . . . there. Does that make sense? Normally when I wake up, the first thing I feel is my a heavy weight in my stomach. It sticks out in front of me. Now, it doesn’t always LOOK like it is sticking out. But it always, always feels like it. I wake up every day with this weight.

On Tuesday, I woke up with no weight.

I knew this cleanse was worth it.

When I got out of bed, I lifted my shirt and looked in the mirror. I didn’t recognize my own body. All the lumps and random spots of bloat throughout my abdomen were gone. I looked almost like I did before I got sick (I say almost because I did still gain weight). I wanted to wear a bikini! Too bad it’s the middle of winter. I miss being able to wear a bikini.

I sat down to work (from home again) and I just couldn’t get over how great I felt. No pain at all. No discomfort at all. I decided to get in a little workout and went to the building gym for 30 minutes on the elliptical.

When I got back, I started struggling. I just wanted to eat something post-gym. I told Maggie I was having a hard time. It’s hard not eating when you’re used to eating. I missed tastes, flavors, textures. Just like the last time. It is especially hard when you follow foodies and food companies on Twitter and read food blogs for fun.

I got back on track pretty easily, though. At 5:00 I left to go to my mom’s in Queens to visit with her, my brother and Mallory. Things got very difficult when Mallory made homemade vodka sauce for penne a la vodka. I wanted it so badly. I considered taking one piece of penne to try, but I didn’t. And luckily for me, they ate all the food up, and pretty quickly, so there was none for me to steal later. I did, however, take two slices of cucumber — one of Blueprint Cleanse’s allowed “cheat foods.”

I was able to finish all my drinks and even finish the one I couldn’t finish the day before. I really wanted tea — herbal tea is encouraged on BPC — but my mom didn’t have any. Instead, I made hot water with cinnamon and drank two mugs of  that. I assume cinnamon is OK since it is in the cashew milk. And it was really good! I wouldn’t mind drinking that every now and again.

Once again, the cashew milk was the star of the day. It was my redemption. My treat for getting through another day. And it is so filling, so even though I was awake watching Funny People after finishing it and then took a really long time falling asleep, I never felt hungry or tempted to get some food.

I woke up this morning at 7:30. Day 3.  Not hungry. At all. Worked until 9:00 before starting my hot water with lemon (blech) and first green juice. I didn’t finish the first green juice until 11.

I wasn’t very hungry and I have a really hard time getting the greens with romaine down.

Then my brother and Mallory came home with a box of Dunkin Donuts. WHAT.  Mallory also had a white hot chocolate! I never tried that before. I needed to know, I took a tiny sip. Heaven.

Moving on.

I have not taken any doughnuts. In a way, it is good I am doing the cleanse now because I probably would have gorged myself on doughnuts. Last night, I likely would have gone overboard on the garlic bread and pasta. So this is a good thing. I also would have gone to Applebee’s tonight if not for the cleanse. I am grateful to the cleanse in this sense.

So here I am in the middle of  Day 3, sitting next to a box of doughnuts. I’m not starving. I am only on juice #2 and it is 12:00. I can get through today. My stomach is calm. No rumbling, no movement, no pain, no bloat, no discomfort.

Oh yeah and it is flat. Sigh. I will miss this when it’s gone.

This is all bittersweet. I feel amazing now. I wish I could eat no solid food all the time, but obviously that is not possible. As great as I feel now, I know that as soon as I eat food again all the old problems will come right back. I wish I could wear a feeding tube attached to one of those silver stands with wheels like in hospitals, and just walk around with that all day.

And, I miss food. I miss eating. I miss flavors. I miss noshing.

I don’t think I will do another cleanse for awhile since they are costly and in the end, not so worth it for my long term comfort. I spend so much money on my GI problems, it’s just not something I can stick with. I am glad I did BPC again, though, and even gladder that I went to Level 1 this time. So much better than Level 3 for me. And I still have my cashew milk to look forward to at the end of the day.

Maybe I’ll put on a bikini tonight.

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